DIVERSE INHERITANCE

SCENE IV
~ ON THE PRECIPICE OF CALAMITY ~

A roar rushed through the wind, a thick, vicious, howl of a roar; monstrous and terrifying to those of the temple who heard it. Chiruku was amongst those who saw the creature that created the blood-curdling, chilling sound. In the distance, the hazy demonic outline could be made out, and a terrible fear clogged his throat at the sight of the monsters mere shadow.

"Start the evacuation!" Chiruku ordered loudly to the terrified monks, dodging a swipe of wind created by the creature's clawed paw.

The earthquakes were the first thing to worry about however; the demon had yet to arrive, and Konoha were already on their way. Minato had already written to confirm as such. Until the evacuations were done, he would do his best to ignore it. Once all the aids and workers were out of the way, he would organise the monks themselves and join the ninjas.

"Good idea, but that doesn't really fit into my plans"

The head monk whirled, gluing his gaze to one of the closer spires of the temple; a man with a black-striped orange mask stared down at the chaos. Chiruku frowned as the man held up a small grey object.

Feathers?
No…!

"I can't have you monks mumbling your little chants in the middle of my designs, now can I? Religion and demons simply don't mix after all"

Another howl echoed through the valley as the monster let rip another earth shattering blast of chakra.

"Hells Miki! She's got her Sharingan already!" Minato exclaimed quietly.

He was seated on the end of the bed his wife occupied, staring at his tiny female clone in amazement; he could see Mikoto's face in her, but there was no question that she was his daughter with such bright straw-yellow strands on her tiny head.

Naruto Namikaze was born at precisely nine thirty-seven in the evening in the private wards of Konoha hospital She had a short patch of hair yellow as his, weighed just under nine pounds, was nineteen in height, and had bright cerulean eyes (though they could darken with time).

She seemed to be a very quiet baby now that she had grown accustomed to her new surroundings; upon meeting cold air for the first time, she had been more displeased than Deidara and Minato had been forced to wonder if Deidara's energy was completely Kushina after all.

The tiny, sleepy, red swirling eyes stared up at the surroundings blearily, filled with curiosity, burning the image into her memory before closing again; he knew the requirements for the base activation of bloodlines, and he was amazed. How could she tell she meant more than the earth to him? That he would rather die than let anything harm her at only a few hours old?

The idea was floundering, but made him feel rather gooey.

"Wonder if you'll remember this when you're all grown up? Hmm? Whaddaya think?" he asked the tiny child.

Mikoto gave a quiet laugh from the hospital bed she had been forced back into.
"My father is going to be thrilled; she wasn't supposed to have it in the first place."

The doors opened and two six-year-olds hurried into the room, Itachi carrying his younger brother and trying to ignore the boy's young teeth gnawing in his shoulder-length locks. He greeted his mother quietly, having no desire to have the small baby begin yelling.

"I thought you said she was going to be a boy?" Deidara asked his father, climbing up onto the bed beside him to get a better view of his sister.

Minato laughed.

"I though she was going to be a boy, I was certain of it, your Aunt Miki too. I guess we have another practical joker on our hands, huh shrimp?" he ruffled Deidara's hair with one hand, the small female still secure in his other arm.

"I'm not a shrimp, yeah! And you can't say I take after Mum any more if she's a prankster too!" Deidara moaned, batting the hand away from his now messy shoulder length sunny locks.

"Nothing you say will change the fact that you are a shrimp, Deidara" Minato informed him flatly, earning a small smile from Itachi.

"Graaagh! Just you wait, yeah! I'll drink loads of milk and then I'll get taller than you, yeah!" the boy raged, glaring at his father and new step-brother.

All the excitement roused the sleeping baby, and her blue eyes stared up at her father, small fussing noises emerging from her, expressing her interest in her surroundings. Her father broke out a goofy grin at the actions, and the two boys looked rather sheepish at having woken the small girl.

"Of course you will Deidara; now do you want to hold your sister?" his father asked, completely unaffected by his sons glare.

Deidara nodded warily, moving his arms as his father transferred his sister into his arms. He had never held a baby before, and the small girl seemed to sense his nervousness and began to squirm - trying to find the security that she had felt in her father's arms. She gargled her slight displeasure when her head was left hanging for a few moments.

"Uwah! She moves! I can't keep hold of her! I'll drop her yeah!!" Deidara cried in alarm as she squired in his hold.
"Of course she moves you dolt!" Itachi snickered.
"Daaad! Take her back before I drop her, Yeah!" the blonde begged, not at all confident holding his sister.
"Its all right, just make sure you support her head; she cant hold it by herself well yet - see, let her rest it in the crook of your am like this…"

The Hokage gave his son some proper instruction on how to hold the girl, angling his arm to act as a cushion for her head and the squirming soon stopped. The small girl stared up at her brother curiously.

"She's really tiny!" Deidara gawped, and Itachi sniggered at the almost offended look on his sister's face.
"That's babies for you Deidara." Minato informed the blonde boy.
"She's quiet; I though babies were supposed to scream a lot yeah?" Deidara asked curiously.

Minato quickly paled.

"They do - don't jinx it for us just yet!"
"Eh? Me too?" Deidara stared at his sister dubiously.
"Deidara, since the moment you were born, I can't think of a single hour you haven't been making some sort of noise"

Deidara glared at his father and the snickering Itachi.

"I was this small?" he asked, clearly not believing his fathers words.

"Yep, and since you're her big brother, you've got to look after her, okay?" the man grinned, turning his gaze to Itachi as well; the dark haired boy gave a simple nod of acknowledgement - being an older brother would not be a new experience for him.

Deidara blushed, but nodded.

"…Okay"

Mikoto smiled at the interaction of her extended family - any worries that her own two boys would get along with her son-now-daughter seemed completely irrational now. Deidara and Itachi (in his own way) had taken to Naruto like ducks to water, and Itachi seemed to be dropping his formality around Minato.

Minato had always wanted a girl, but he had been adamant about a boy first when he was younger - Mikoto didn't quite understand that logic, but she had smiled and nodded all the same. She understood that thought a little better now; with three older brothers around she wouldn't have to worry about her daughter as much as she might have.

There was no question that their daughter would be a ninja, but there was also no question that ninja life was not a pretty one. With Itachi and Deidara around, their daughter would be lucky to grow up without rose coloured goggles - though that might not be such a bad thing.

She was certain Sasuke would prove just as protective; he had long since abandoned his frantic chewing on Itachi's hair to stare at his younger sibling with fervent inquisitiveness.

"Can I hold my daughter now?" she asked jokingly.
"Ah! Sorry Aunt Miki!"

Deidara hurriedly moved to transfer the small bundle to her mother, not recognising the humour in her voice. He looked on enviously as Mikoto took her daughter with far more practised ease than he had. The small baby glanced up at her mother, raising a small fist to grasp and tug with interest at a few strands of her mother's soft black hair.

"Welcome to the world Naruto" Mikoto smiled.

Minato sat at the end of the bed, staring into the incubator; Naruto was an early baby - she hadn't been due till the 31st. She was a whole 21 days early, and she had surprised them once again by being a girl.

They really had been certain she was a boy.

She was definitely from ninja family; she had confused them before she was even born, arrived unexpectedly, and that Sharingan she had been packing was a complete mystery.

Mikoto had been certain the Sharingan wouldn't be passed on. It was patriarchal, so why did she have it in the first place?

"What's wrong?" Mikoto asked.
"Nothing, I just think she's going to be a troublemaker when she grows up" he smiled.

"What? Why?" she asked curiously.
"Don't know, but I get the feeling that with all these surprises she's given us, there'll be plenty more in the future" he grinned.

"I don't understand how she could have activated it… The Sharingan has never manifested outside the family before, there are strict techniques in place to make sure, but…" she left the obvious difference hanging.

Those techniques were only used on men who married outside the family - there had never been a need to use them on women before.

"Maybe it has to do with her chakra Capac-"
A loud bag interrupted him as the door to the hospital room was thrown open by Inochi.

"Minato, the fire temple was attacked!" he gasped, trying to regain his breath.

"What? But what about the transmissions? We would have received one if there were any problems!" Minato asked, head snapping towards the exhausted man.

"I don't know! We were on the way back from grass country when we passed! I didn't see much, but it looked like an earthquake had hit! I don't think there were many survivors…" Inochi replied gravely.

"There aren't any earthquakes in fire country, volcanoes, but we don't get earthquakes Inochi; none of the fault lines are big enough" Minato frowned.

"Then go tell the Daimyo to get a team of geologists down there because unless Chiruku is crazy, that is the only explanation for what happened!" Inochi yelled, tugging on his hair in confusion.

"Chiruku? What about him? Damn it Inochi, what did he say?!" Minato asked with exasperation.
"He said a demon attacked them; a freaking demon! How messed up is tha-"

There was a crash from behind them; Minato turned to look at his wife who was slumped on the floor, eyes wide and shaking with shock. Seeing the focus of attention on her she pulled herself up and did her best to calm herself before looking at the two of them directly.

"Did Chiruku say what kind of demon it was?" she asked in a very business like business tone.
"Miki, you can't seriously believe-"
"What kind of demon was it Inochi?!" she near yelled.

The raise in temper was enough for Inochi to take her distress seriously.
"Fox, a nine tailed fox…" he replied quickly.

The horror on his wife's face was more than enough to tell Minato something had gone horribly wrong.

"Itachi, can you go get me my sealing supplies? You can remember the way can't you?" Mikoto asked as she leafed through one of the dusty clan scrolls.

Itachi nodded, and turned from the table and headed for the ladder to the surface.

The moment Inochi had mentioned the Kyuubi, a cold sweat had enveloped her; she didn't remember much about her grandfather, but she remembered his stories of his father - of Madara Uchiha. One of the stores in particular was about his battle with Hashirama Senju.

Even from a distance the roar of a demon had been unmistakable to him, and the nine-tailed form had not been so difficult to make out on the horizon. He had not seen the battle itself, but as his team had arrived to assist the first Hokage, he had spotted the swirling tomoe in the eye of the demon before it disappeared to whence it came.

He'd never had much praise for that man - in fact he had been openly disgusted with the man, going so far as to call him a monster. She'd never paid much attention to those stories when she was younger, and Fugaku had completely dismissed them, but Inochi's news was chilling.

Madara had always seemed power hungry in those stories; they often centred on archaic bedtime stories for scaring children into sleep - those stories of pure monstrous manifestations of chakra, and monsters merging into one beast more terrifying than all together.

Only, whenever grandfather had told her of them, they never sounded like bedtime stories. Nothing sounded like a children's story when it was about Madara. Especially not the last one he had ever told her; there was far to much betrayal in that story for it to be a myth.

She'd explained to Minato at one side, but he only had a temporary solution - a very stupid temporary solution at that. Taking care of the demon was all well and good, but taking care of her great-grandfather was more important; if he did not disappear, then there was no guarantee sealing the Kyuubi would have any point at all.

So, for the first time in probably a hundred years, she had broken into the forgotten underground archives in search of the old scrolls - she didn't know how long these old libraries had been left forgotten, but if they were as old as Madara this was here the solution would be.

If there was anything that could undo the hypnosis on the demon, it would be here in, and the same was true on a method to rid the world of her insane ancestor once and for all.

Going back to the shelf-lined walls, she pulled out a lead sealed scroll gingerly; whatever it was written on was not parchment. She had the sickening feeling it was a skin of some kind, but squeamishness did not get rid of maniacal ancestors.

Looking over the scroll, she found the section she was looking for, and her breath hitched in the back of her throat; the final bed time story had been right after all. Even her ancestor was susceptible to betrayal.

The door of the shrine door rattled on its slider, and a sigh of relief expulsed from her throat.

Some of these scroll had some well made seals on, and without her more specialised inks and other sealing equipment, she might as well burn them to cinders right there and then for all the use they would be.

"Itachi, hurry up with those inks!" she called, hearing movement behind her.
"My apologies, but Itachi is otherwise engaged"

Mikoto whirled, kunai already drawn from her sealing-wristbands. She couldn't see the man's face in the shadow of the cellar scroll library, but his mere presence in the room spoke in itself. Only those with Uchiha blood could get down to this cellar, and only the main lineage even knew of its existence.

Given that most of her family members were out on the front line trying to stall the demon, she couldn't imagine who else could have intruded on her than the one she was intent on removing from existence.

"You!" she snarled.

The man chuckled from his shadowy hideout.

"I wondered what a woman was doing down here, and with such a frantic expression; it seems my suspicions would be spot on" the man spoke in a rather offhand manner.

"I actually listened to the old stories; the Kyuubi has never been an omen of anything but of your mal-intent, and when stories have that much betrayal in them, there is no way they could have been stories!" she replied carefully - she would be a fool to underestimate him.

"And here I though all my descendants were such simpletons" he chuckled.
"What did you do to Itachi?" she demanded.
"I left a clone behind to delay him; I have no intentions of spilling the blood of your children just yet" he said in a patronizingly soothing manner.

Her ears did not fail to catch the meaning of his words.
"You swine! What do you want with her?!" Mikoto snarled loudly.

"Many things, but I want to watch her first; I'm intrigued to see how one of the Sharingan bloodline handles the strongest of the tailed beasts, but I hardly think that's any concern of yours" the man whispered from behind her.

Her eyes widened as the image in front of her dissolved, and sound of sliced skin filled the stagnant underground chamber. Before she hit the stone slabs, she forced raw chakra into her fingertips.

As the man stepped over her body, pausing only to pick up the scroll that had dropped to the floor, she used her last moments to gouge the chakra into the stone before her last moment completely bled across cold floor; she didn't last to hear her ancestor slam the door, completely sealing the forgotten archives once again.

Deidara watched his father dash from shelf to shelf, unfurling scrolls in foreign tongues he couldn't read, and archaic languages he'd never even seen as he searched for a way to stop the demon on path to ravaging the village. He'd never seen such a desperate look on his face before.

Not even hours earlier when his sister had been born had he looked so horrifyingly frantic, and that notion scared him more than he liked to let on. The nightmares he never remembered always left a sick fear crawling all over his skin, and that feeling was crawling back watching his father so panicked.

"Dad, what's going on?" he asked tentatively from the doorway.

His father knocked over the picture on his desk in surprise as he turned to the door, the glass in the flame shattering as it landed on the floor. It was of one of the few times Mikoto had been allowed out of the apartment at the beginning of her pregnancy, at one of the festivals.

"Deidara? What are you doing here, you should be in the evacuation shelters squirt" he sighed, relaxing even as he tried to reprimand the small boy standing in the doorway.

"Aunt Miki hasn't come back yet... What's happening?" he asked quietly.

Minato knew his son was no idiot - the boy wouldn't have graduated so early if he had been; Deidara could tell something was causing him a great deal of distress.

"Something very bad, Deidara. Something very bad" he sighed, casting a glance to the array of scrolls and plethora of old, near forgotten techniques.

He'd raided the vault of techniques in the main Hokage building for a way to stop the monster fox; searched through all the cacophony of hundred year old scrolls for something, anything other than the one technique that had the largest chance of succeeding.

Mikoto had left mumbling to herself about some old library, making him promise to wait until she had found something, but Deidara was right. Mikoto had been gone for hours with no word; she had taken Itachi with her for exactly that purpose.

Either she was still searching or something had gone very wrong. If she didn't come back soon then he would have no choice but to proceed with his original idea.

A tug on his sleeve jolted him from his thoughts, and he stared down at his now six-year-old son; Deidara was usually very calm despite his activity. He'd been on a few missions with the boy with his own team, and he knew that Deidara could keep a level headed attitude in the face of blood-curdling carnage.

He'd never looked more like a child than he did now, and it was all his fault. If he'd just thought to send a team when the usual message from the temple was delayed...

No, that was not the issue at the moment - the issue was stopping that monster of chakra from reaching the village, and at the moment he had only one fool-proof way of ensuring that.

He picked up his son and gave him a crushing hug - one that was returned with panicked confusion even amidst understanding; this was the last time he would talk to his son, so the time would be spent wisely. He set the boy back down on the ground, bending down and putting his hands on his shoulders.

"Deidara, do you remember what I told you at the hospital?" he asked seriously, giving the boy sincere eye contact.
"To look after Naruto" the boy replied, unease entering his expression.

"Do think you can promise me something else?" he asked with a weak grin.

Deidara paused - Minato was in no doubt that he knew exactly what this conversation meant. He could see the glisten of tears trying to force themselves from their ducts as Deidara frowned in thought. After a short moment of consideration, he bit his lip and gave a short, firm nod of his head.

"Can you look after your Aunt Miki for me too?" he asked.

Deidara tried to nod his head but child won over responsible ninja, and he settled for fixing his arms around his father's neck and sniffling into his shoulder instead.

Minato was man enough to admit he lat the same salty drops fall from his own eyes as he mumbled almost inaudible apologies in his son's ear.

Minato watched as his daughter stared at the chaos taking place around them; blood, chunks of flesh and bright bone poked out from the broken buildings. A roar from the Kyuubi deafened him, and the vibrating wind rushed past over his skin. Gritting his teeth, he focused his chakra on the permanent seal on Gamabunta's head.

After a brief weightless feeling, the bangs and crashes of the Kyuubi's destruction could be heard over the desperate cries of the village ninja attempting to hold it back. He felt Gamabunta lurching beneath him as they drew closer to the beast itself; he tightened his hold on the tiny baby he was carrying.

"You don't have to do this sonny; surely you don't want to leave her an orphan? Jiraiya could do it, or Hizuren!" Gamabunta gargled loudly.

"I know that, but… What kind of village leader would I be if I let someone else take my place? Besides, she won't be an orphan; she'll have Mikoto, Kushina, Fugaku, and she has three older brothers to look after her! I'll bet anything that old priest will keep an eye out too…" he replied quickly, to avoid doubting the decision himself.

Naruto began to squirm, trying to look around as Gamabunta took another grumbling leap towards the cause of the devastation. He glanced down once ad found her eyes a blazing red. God, she was going to remember this wasn't she? He didn't want that, anything but that.

She seemed fascinated rather than terrified, but something was making her uneasy. If there wasn't, she wouldn't have activated the Sharingan after the initial birth activation.

Putting her through this was bad enough, but could he do it knowing she would remember? She would remember at some point, he knew for a fact. He didn't want this to be the only memory of him she had. But did he have a choice? Mikoto had been insistent he use her when revealed the sealing plan. He still didn't understand why, but he had never seen her so uneasy before.

Salty tears stung at his eyes, and he knew they weren't from the wind as Gamabunta took another leap. The demon let out a long bone-chilling howl and Naruto's fear was finally vocalised.

"Say that like you meant it will you Minato?" Gamabunta muttered.

A choking sob crackled at the back of his throat as he looked down at the tiny blonde baby once again.

"Gimme a break Bunta! I don't particularly want to say it!" Minato grumbled in reply as Gamabunta skidded to a halt perhaps half a kilometre from the demon itself.

He could see the shady outline of a man atop its head, and remembered a warning from Mikoto as such - 'Do not underestimate that man Minato; it'll be the death of you if you do'

He didn't really understand what this was all about, but he trusted her; if she was warning him about the guy, he was not to be trifled with. Gamabunta took another leap forward, and there was perhaps a hundred meters between himself and the demon itself; it was a monstrous thing up close. Snarling and slavering at the mere sight of him.

The hot reek of bloody breath engulfed him, and he felt ill. God, the thing itself was terrifying without the chakra. He didn't dare think of what it would be like in sage mode - he wasn't very skilled with that, but he could imagine the horror if he felt so repulsed without it.

Speaking of chakra… something was wrong with it. It was disturbed. He took a closer look at the creatures face - its eyes were swivelling uncontrollably. Odd, it was as if it was resisting something… a familiar set of spiralling dots flashed in one of the carnivore's eyes before swivelling once again.

No… It couldn't be! He snapped his eyes towards the closer figure in suspicion. He couldn't tell if he had the Sharingan from this distance but he was certain of it; it would explain why Mikoto was so wary of him. He did wonder how a mere Sharingan could control a demon, but to more important matters.

At least he knew why Mikoto was so insistent on Naruto being the host; the Sharingan may be advantageous in controlling it later on. He hoped it would never come to that though. He didn't recon much to the chances of no interaction with it, but he could dream.

He turned his gaze down to the baby once again, forcing a smile onto his face; if she was going to remember this, then the least he could do was make sure her only memory of him wasn't completely depressing.

"With any luck, you'll never reach eight tails of chakra, so I'm going to take this time to apologize for what I'm doing to you. Though if we do meet again, you'll probably kick me in the nuts for this anyway!" he joked, ignoring the tears splashing down from his face to hers.

With haste, he quickly held her closer to him, and he felt her tiny hand clamping onto one of the yellow spikes atop his head; did she know what was happening? He wouldn't put it past her. She had given them so many surprises already, after all. Her crying was dimming at the closer contact, comfort.

Oh god, what was he about to do?

"I'm so sorry Naruto, but there's no other way. Just stiffen that upper lip for Daddy okay? This won't take long, I promise!" he choked, forcing his own fingers to unclench hers from the yellow strands.

Taking a deep breath, he bit his thumb and lowered the girl in his arms; he took great care to make create the base seals. Kushina and Mikoto could create the finishing touches and activate the eight trigrams, but the dead demon seal needed to be cast before the finalities could be added.

This was the only part of the sealing he would remain in contact with his daughter for; he took one last look at her before activating one of the seals he had placed on her. The bloody symbols gave of a soft yellow glow as he funnelled his chakra into them.

"Forgive me… Reverse summoning: Flying Thunder God Technique!"

The howl of the Kyuubi was bone chilling to those who heard it; for a select few in the village shrine, it was accompanied by the arrival of a small baby girl in a flash of yellow light. At the far side of the village, the howls were distant, but the flurried voices of preparation did not drown them out.

"Make sure she's in the centre of the seal Deidara! If she's out by so much as a millimetre it won't work!" Kushina ordered - with Mikoto out of action and Fugaku next to useless with seals, she was the only one with any knowledge on the seal.

Though in all honestly, she'd slept through most of her lessons on seals. A level twelve was her limit - the one Minato was using was twenty seven. She was well out of her depth, and was mentally cursing Jiraiya for being out of the village at such a crucial time.

"I know mum!" Deidara replied testily.

He was having a few problems persuading his sister to let go of his fringe long enough to put her in the centre of the chalk-drawn seal on the floor.

"That's my hai-Ow! Mum, get her of my hair, yeah! Ow! Ow!"

He winced as the girl tugged sharply, eyes red and swirling with fascination. Fugaku came to the boys rescue, gently prying her hands from the bright straw coloured locks.

"Go sit down so you don't get in the way Deidara" he instructed.
"Yes Mr. Uchiha"

Deidara pouted, knowing better than to argue with the man in such serious circumstances. He grumpily sat down on one of the stone floor slabs, watching his mother fussing over the girl with a vial of his father's blood; he did not like this at all.

No one would explain what was happening, other than that the demon attacking the village was going to be sealed inside his sister, but he knew one thing for certain.

After all this was over he would never see his father again; staring out of the crack in the sliding doors, he could see the demon and Gamabunta going head to head.

He didn't know why, but he had a nagging suspicion that something was wrong with this; the temple never forgot to send word. Never. And aunt Miki? She sent too many words sometimes; she was always worrying about something, and when she looked for solutions to problems she always kept an update. Itachi wasn't here either.

Something was very wrong, this was all too coincidental to be natural, and there was nothing he could do to stop his father from sacrificing himself needlessly. A loud bark from the dog belonging to Hana echoed around the battlefield - a long mourning howl.

"That's Hana's signal! It's starting!" Tsume yelled, prompting the adults to take their places at the four corners of the chalk seal on the floor.

Nothing for a few moments as the four adults - his mother, uncle Fugaku, Tsume and Inochi - all concentrated their chakra into the seal on the floor.

Then the baby in the centre of it - in a cushioned basket - began wailing, screaming, and writhing. It was a manner completely unlike the discontent she had displayed when he had accidentally awoken her earlier. it could only be agony.

He turned his eyes away; he couldn't watch it, it was impossible. If he watched, he'd be tempted to wrench her from the centre of the stupid seal and run for it. What good would that do? He turned his gaze to the battle outside instead; the Kyuubi was writing in Gamabunta's grasp, withering away in roaring pain not unlike that of his sister's.

As he watched he caught movement from the corner of the shrine entrance, just beyond the sliding doors; it was only for an instant, but he saw the familiar red swirl of the Sharingan disappearing into the air.

He didn't know why, but he knew that the bringer of misfortune had just left the scene of his latest crime.

Only one more chapter of this to go! I liked writing this chapter - it has foreshadowing in it. I like foreshadowing.
Hope you liked it!

Nat.
xxx